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Man dies at Burning Man, police report it as “suspicious”

A 33-year-old man was pronounced dead at the festival

Police are treating the death of a 33-year-old man at Burning Man festival as "suspicious", Newsweek reports.

The man, named as 33-year-old Shane Billingham from New Zealand, was found unresponsive last Thursday (29th) in his vehicle at his camp. 

In a statement released by the festival on Friday, Burning Man wrote that despite CPR being performed by bystanders, Mr. Billingham was declared dead by the on-site medical staff shortly thereafter.

The Pershing County Sheriff's Office reported that a preliminary autopsy showed Mr. Billingham's blood to have a high concentration of carbon monoxide, which is considered "poisonous to human life". 

Authorities are yet to to release information on the manner of death but have said that it still "remains under investigation as suspicious".

Last Monday (26th), three people were injured when a plane left the Burning Man site and crashed at Reno-Stead airport

A 61-year-old man was also killed in a head-on crash near Gerlach, Nevada, on Sunday the 25th August, which caused hours of tailgate queues for Burning Man, with police asking people traveling to Burning Man to consider waiting if they had not left Interstate 80.